Ice axes

ABSTRACT

An ice axe has a pick part, a rear part projecting in the opposite direction from the pick part and a crown part constituting a head assembly. The head assembly presents a shank which is fitted into a hollow shaft part. The rear part may be formed as an adze or as a hammer head. When formed as an adze it is made from metal plate curved to shape.

United States Patent [191 [111 3,719,179

MacInnes 1 March 6 1973 771,419 10/1904 Conover ....14s/3 [54] ICE AXES 1,428,287 9/1922 Holmes $1....l/2

[] Inventor: Hamish Maclnnes, Glencoe, Scot- 794,057 7/1905 Sullivan l l l l X land 1,643,861 9/1927 Szakacs ..14s/3 x Assigns/31 Trevor P eck Climbing Equipment Primary Examiner-Harold D. Whitehead Limited, Leicester, ngla d Attorney-Larson, Taylor & Hinds [22] Filed: Oct. 22, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 83,078 [30] Foreign Application Priority Data [5 7 ABSTRACT An ice axe has a pick part, a rear part projecting in the opposite direction from the pick part and a crown Oct. 24, 1969 Great Britain ..522l0/69 part'constituting a head assembly. The head assembly 52 us. 01 "/36 Presents a Shank which is fitted into a hollOW Shaft 511 1m. 01. ..B28d l/26 part- The Year Part may be fmmed as an as a [58] Field of Search ..125/40-43 36' hammer headwhen fmmed as an it is made /2 8 from metal plate curved to shape. [56] References Cited 4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,089,043 3/1914 Burgess l45/2 ICE AXES This invention relates to ice axes.

An ice axe as at present constructed consists of a head including a pick portion, a rear portion usually formed as an adze projecting in the opposite direction from the pick portion, and a shank, all formed integrally as one part, and a shaft to which the shank is attached. Heretofore the head has been formed as a forging. A forging besides being expensive to make and tending to be heavy requires careful heat treatment after the forging work has been performed to restore the requisite properties of strength and toughness to the forging. It is an object of the present invention to provide a head for an ice axe which is easy to fabricate, has a minimum weight and requires no heat treatment after fabrication.

An ice axe according to the invention consists of an assembly of several separately formed parts including a pick part formed of a flat metallic plate presenting two arms defining between them an acute angle, one arm constituting a blade portion and the other arm constituting a fixing portion, a rear part projecting in the opposite direction from the blade portion, said rear part being formed with two parallel legs spaced a distance just wide enough to allow the fixing portion of the pick part to pass between the legs, a U-shaped crown part the limbs of which straddle the legs of the rear part, the limbs of the crown part, the legs of the rear part and the fixing portion of the pick part together forming a rigid shank, and a tubular shaft part within which the shank is secured.

The rear part may be an adze part consisting of a metallic plate curved to a varying degree of curvature which is least at one end, the curved sides approaching one another towards the other end where they form the two spaced parallel legs projecting from the concave side of the part, and forming with the limbs of the crown part and the fixing portion of the pick part the rigid shank.

Alternatively, the rear part may be formed as a hammer head constituted by an elongated block slotted inwards for a chosen distance from one end to form the legs.

In one construction for normal use the angle defined by the arms of the pick part is about 80. In another construction for use particularly on stepp snow the said angle is about 45.

All the parts may be metallic in which case they may all be welded together. Alternatively selected parts may be welded together, the assembly of all the parts being held to one another by fixing means such as rivets. In addition to the use of rivets the parts may also be bonded to one another by a synthetic resin adhesive.

The crown part may be formed from a moulding of plastics material. Where the crown part is made of metal it may either be pressed from steel plates or may 7 be formed as a casting.

The limbs of the crown part, the fixing portion of the pick part and the legs of the rear part may be so shaped that when all these parts forming the head assembly are put together the shank is of substantially elliptical cross section, the tubular shaft part being also elliptical in cross section and being a tight fit on the shank.

The crown part may be formed with a thickened head i.e. the portion joining the two limbs, so that it will resist hammer blows applied to it when the axe is in use.

A practical embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which FIG. I is a general view of an ice axe showing the rear part as constituted by an adze, FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the several parts and FIG. 3 is a section through the line 33 in FIG. 1.

In the drawings, 1 denotes a pick part formed of a flat metallic plate presenting two arms 2 and 3. The arm 2. constitutes a blade portion and the arm 3 a fixing portion. The exploded view shows two different forms of rear part, one formed as an adze part 4 consisting of a metallic plate curved to a varying degree of curvature which is least at the end 5, the two curved sides approaching one another towards the other end 6 where they form two spaced parallel legs 7 projecting from the concave side of the part 4. 8 denotes a rear part formed as a hammer head and consists of an elongated block 9 slotted at 10 a chosen distance inwards from one end and formed with spaced parallel legs ll. 12 denotes a U-shaped crown part the two limbs 13 of which are capable of straddling the legs 7 or 11 of the I parts 4 or 8, said legs 7 or 11 being spaced a sufficient distance to receive the arm 3 of the pick part 1 between them. 14 denotes a tubular shaft part which is elliptical in cross section and within which the limbs 13 of the crown part are a tight fit. The parts 1, 4 or 8, 12 and 14 are formed with appropriate registering holes 15A and 153 for reception of fixing rivets 16A and 16B for holding the parts to one another.

The assembled axe is light, strong and cheap to manufacture, these attributes coming from the fabricated nature of the axe and the use of plate material. An additional advantage is that if any part of the axe becomes damaged or broken the damaged or broken part can be replaced without the necessity of replacing the entire axe.

In assembling the parts, conveniently the pick part 1 the rear part 4 or 8 and the crown part 12 are put together first and riveted to one another by the rivet 16A which is passed through the holes 15A in the parts forming the head assembly. The head assembly is then fitted to the shaft part 14, the shank formed by the limbs 13 of the crown part 12, the legs 7 or 11 of the rear part 4 or 8 and the fixing portion 3 of the pick part 1 fitting into the open end of the tubular shaft part 14 and being riveted therein by the rivet 163 which is passed through the holes 158 in the said parts.

What is claimed is:

1. An ice axe comprising a plurality of separately formed parts including a pick part comprising a flat metallic plate having first and second arms which define an acute angle therebetween, said first arm constituting a blade portion and said second arm constituting a fixing portion and extending along the longitudinal axis of the axe; a second part which includes a first portion which projects in the opposite direction from the blade portion of said pick part, and first and second parallel legs which extend along the longitudinal axis of the axe and which are spaced apart by a distance just sufficient to receive the fixing portion of said pick part therebetween; a U-shaped crown part having a head portion located at one end of the axe and a plurality of limbs joined by said head portion which extend therefrom along the longitudinal axis of the axe and which straddle the legs of said second part and the fixing portion of said pick part received therebetween so that said limbs, said legs, and said fixing portion form a rigid shank; and a tubular shaft which fixedly receives said rigid shank, the head portion of said crown part extending beyond the end of said tubular shaft.

2. An ice axe as claimed in claim 1 in which the first portion of the second part comprises an adze part comprising a metallic plate curved to a varying degree of curvature which is least at one end, the curved sides approaching one another towards the other end where they form the two spaced parallel legs projecting from the concave side of the part and forming with the limbs of the crown part and the fixing portion of the pick part the rigid shank.

bular shaft part being also elliptical in internal cross section 

1. An ice axe comprising a plurality of separately formed parts including a pick part comprising a flat metallic plate having first and second arms which define an acute angle therebetween, said first arm constituting a blade portion and said second arm constituting a fixing portion and extending along the longitudinal axis of the axe; a second part which includes a first portion which projects in the opposite direction from the blade portion of said pick part, and first and second parallel legs which extend along the longitudinal axis of the axe and which are spaced apart by a distance just sufficient to receive the fixing portion of said pick part therebetween; a U-shaped crown part having a head portion located at one end of the axe and a plurality of limbs joined by said head portion which extend therefrom along the longitudinal axis of the axe and which straddle the legs of said second part and the fixing portion of said pick part received therebetween so that said limbs, said legs, and said fixing portion form a rigid shank; and a tubular shaft which fixedly receives said rigid shank, the head portion of said crown part extending beyond the end of said tubular shaft.
 1. An ice axe comprising a plurality of separately formed parts including a pick part comprising a flat metallic plate having first and second arms which define an acute angle therebetween, said first arm constituting a blade portion and said second arm constituting a fixing portion and extending along the longitudinal axis of the axe; a second part which includes a first portion which projects in the opposite direction from the blade portion of said pick part, and first and second parallel legs which extend along the longitudinal axis of the axe and which are spaced apart by a distance just sufficient to receive the fixing portion of said pick part therebetween; a U-shaped crown part having a head portion located at one end of the axe and a plurality of limbs joined by said head portion which extend therefrom along the longitudinal axis of the axe and which straddle the legs of said second part and the fixing portion of said pick part received therebetween so that said limbs, said legs, and said fixing portion form a rigid shank; and a tubular shaft which fixedly receives said rigid shank, the head portion of said crown part extending beyond the end of said tubular shaft.
 2. An ice axe as claimed in claim 1 in which the first portion of the second part comprises an adze part comprisiNg a metallic plate curved to a varying degree of curvature which is least at one end, the curved sides approaching one another towards the other end where they form the two spaced parallel legs projecting from the concave side of the part and forming with the limbs of the crown part and the fixing portion of the pick part the rigid shank.
 3. An ice axe as claimed in claim 1 in which the first portion of the second part is a hammer head constituted by an elongated block slotted inwards for a chosen distance from one end to form the legs. 